They could have assimilated them that around 1998 without much of a problem, but they let them slip, now that might have been a fatal undoing for the Borg.

Exactly, MeeGo allows you to code in Python/C/C++/Fortran and even Java/Mono/C# whatever - the GNU GCC is there, standard open source project and libraries all working, just ask any developer, they are loving it. So from the dev's POV it is heaven. Now the marketing, branding and UI of the MeeGo platform -- that is completely other matter..

Oh, really? They are making so many mistakes of late, for example in their lastest smartphone the N8 they omitted the "AppStore" - the OviStore from being included in the phone by default. What a move! I mean somebody in Cupertino must have had a long laugh and then a very good sleep knowing how badly managed their competitor's platform is.

Quite contrary to the public's belief. Android is not very friendly to standard open source projects, to usual OSS programming languages and lacks basic development means in general. Of course you can "publish" nearly anything on the store, but that anything must come from one development scenario only - the Java app.

One can't even use even basic canonical open source projects and libraries.

Developers are pretty much forced to use Java everywhere - language that is not very popular in the FOSS community and that is falling further down in popularity every other day now.

Multinationals avoid paying taxes in high-tax jurisdictions, that is one of the reasons why they are, you know, multinationals.

Rumor has it that they are dropping it to discourage Android apps development (Java) on Macs.

Yep, iPads are predicted to sell about 47-50 million in 2011, most of them replacing desktops and laptops, that would mean huge shift of critical mass of users towards another type of computer. Still, second popular tablet OS seam to be Android..

Windows 7 software feels like a downgrade (UI wise) from XP and from the technical perspective they decided to not allow the old NT/XP drivers that control our machinery to run in Windows 7, so we would need to rewrite them using the new WDK7, again that means throwing thousands of lines of code and QA testing out of window. Do they plan to do this with any future iteration of their OS? Shouldn't we really stick with something that have some predictability and permanency? Is there some NT or XP based Windows due in 2011?

There is no other language that comes even close to C++ in terms of performance, features and freedom of coding style, not to mention direct support by the hardware vendors like Intel, AMD and even Apple now (see Intel's compiler collection or AMD optimizing compilers). C++ is also patent problems free and IEEE's "gold" standard of a programming language.

C++ is about freedom, features and performace. That is what makes it special and what matters in producion environments.

Objective, generic, functional -- its all there and accompained with the best preprocessor, macros and code generators by leading Intel, Microsoft, AMD and even Apple C++ compilers, but again the most important thing is that nothing is really forced upon you. No "automatic memory manager" or other "nany" and "dumb things down" features that create artificial limits, slow execution, unpredictable behavious and most importantly do not restricts you to somebody's elses narrow minded coding practices.

God of War, Halo Reach, Borderlands, BioShock, Oblivion, Gears of War, Doom III, Unreal Engine, Mafia 2, Counter-Strike (entire Source Engine in fact)

Pretty much every AAA production that sells under top publishers is written in C++ today, no exception. Complete Playstation 3/PSP production tool chain for 1st parties and recomended libraries all C/C++, same on Xbox, same on Wii and Nintendo DS, even iPhone, not to mention all the profession software for Linux and Win/Mac.

Android version has to do lots of calls through that problematic Java/Dalvik bindings, so the performance and memory usage is degraded, it will probably never be as quick as the native Android browser that doesn't need to deal with this. The other aesthetical complains like fonts will surely get fixed.

Is it not entirelly impossible that IP vendors, network providers, ISPs and hosting companies have already accumulated or say squattered enough 4byte IPs to take advantage of the upcoming IP shortage situation and are not rushing the much needed IPv6 hardware deployment as they should?

It's a codeword! Everybody knows dark siders run Vegas.

The only shaky security you can get on Android comes from the developer itself, check the source, check dev's website whether they are trust worthy or not, but given the market "open" approach this is a major problem. You bake the app, put it on the market, nothing is stopping you. The app can access a lot and can call home over the internet, so you are afraid for a good reason. Hopefully Google starts putting some fences and walls around this wild garden